The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Deep Blues Goodbye (Altered States #1)

LE Harner and TA Webb

4 stars

I have already bought book 2 in the series, “Deadly Shades of Gold,” because my reading friends know what I like. I am always grateful for recommendations.

Having cut my teeth, so to speak, on gay vampire romance writing before it was an actual thing (late 1980s, in response to Anne Rice), I follow the various developments in gay vampire fiction with great interest.

But I am not all that easy to please, because my definition of what a vampire should be is not exactly what everyone else’s is. And I insist on good writing. I don’t need Hemingway (feh, homophobic straight guy), but I won’t read crap just because it’s gay/vampire/romance.

So Laura Harner and Tom Webb’s collaboration on “Deep Blues Goodbye” was very welcome. It sort of takes up the “True Blood” premise of supernormals becoming acknowledged, and thus creates a world that is like our own, but, you know, with vampires and werewolves.

The core characters in this book: Sam Garrett, Danny Burkette, and Travis Boudreau, are very different from each other, although tied together in complicated ways. But they are all cops trying to deal with the new reality of vampires and werewolves in the world; and with a series of gruesome murders in New Orleans cemeteries that seem to be related.

Oh, and Sam is trying to deal with Travis being turned into a vampire, which is how everything became public in the first place.

Awkward, right?

I love gay cop stories. I love gay vampire stories. Gay vampire cop stories…*swoon.” And Harner/Webb make a good team. In this novella-length launch to the series, they pack in plenty of action, set in a plausible and recognizable New Orleans (I have family in NOLA, and I love the city, not just the Quarter). The characters are not fully 3-D yet, but as we get to know them better, I’m sure they’ll get fleshed out more.

And, I have to note, the book ends on a cliff-hanger. But, for once, it’s a perfect cliff-hanger. It leaves you with little doubt about what will happen next, or at least that something good will happen next. Something exciting.
Can’t wait to turn the page.

Deadly Shades of Gold

By LE Harner and TA Webb

Four stars

This second book in the Altered States series picks right up on the cliff-hanger from Deep Blues Goodbye. Sam Garrett, New Orleans detective on the Paranormal Investigation team, known as the Odd Squad, wakes up to find that his world has changed forever.

As a newly-minted werewolf under the protection of Russ Evans and his pack, Sam has no choice but to see the world through new eyes, as he and his former police partner Travis Boudreau have to discover the identity and the motivations behind a series of preternatural killings in the Crescent City.

With echoes of the film “The Big Easy” and “True Blood” flickering in my head, not to mention Anne Rice’s many books set in New Orleans, I kept trying to wrap my mind around the complications inherent in unraveling Louisiana mob crimes with a not entirely trustworthy police force, all mixed in with corrupt vampires and werewolves who have decided to take advantage of their superior powers to cash in on human weaknesses. Sort of makes one’s head spin.

I was a little disappointed that detective Danny Burkette doesn’t get much to do in this book, which focuses more on Sam and Travis and their readjustments, both to their altered states and to being friends again. A black gay cop prejudiced against preternaturals has a lot of baggage to unpack, and we get a front-row seat for Sam’s struggles with his new identity. Travis, turned into a vampire and abandoned by Henri du Champ, oldest vampire in Louisiana, has never quite come to terms with who he is and what that really means. All of this makes for interesting reading and is, for me, the best part of this book.

The personal aspects of Sam and Travis’ story is set against a truly sinister background: Henri du Champ’s machinations against the Fontaine crime family, and their retaliation against him as they struggle for financial and political gold. We learn about this from multiple viewpoints, most vividly through that of Henri, who, with all the arrogance of an ancient vampire, is sure of his superiority and immortality and has no qualms about destroying innocents, human or otherwise, to ensure his success. There are some scenes that are truly upsetting involved with this dark side of Harner and Webb’s narrative. But I guess when you’ve got organized crime and supernatural creatures mixed up, it’s gonna get ugly.

I won’t pretend that this is profound or literary gold; Harner and Webb write well and move the plot forward at a good pace. There is enough romantic interplay for us to care increasingly about the main characters and to ponder what their futures might hold. The setting, in my beloved New Orleans (I’m only a tourist, mind you, but I’ve had family there for decades), is authentic and creates the right tone of faded elegance and vital grubbiness.

There’s no cliff-hanger on this one, but the ending is just right to hook us into a keen anticipation of the next book. In a world where vampires and werewolves ally with the cops and the federal government to protect the innocent, anything can happen.

Oh, goody.